I have a beef with David Allen
Friday, April 6th, 2007David Allen is, as many of you know, the man behind Getting Things Done. I’ve been meaning to become more familiar with GTD methods and have been reading a lot about the subject. The websites 43Folders.com and LifeHacker.com in particular are great resources.
It was through the 43Folders Wiki that I found a link to “an informative article” about Ticklers on Mr Allen’s website. I put that in quotes because I have no idea whether the article is informative or not.
Why, might you ask? Because the article is no longer simply presented on Mr Allen’s website for you to read. He’s set up a shopping cart system for people to buy his articles - even the free ones. Now, instead of simply providing access to something that was and still is free, Mr Allen now requires that we jump through the hoops of registering with his company, add items to a shopping cart, and go the the entire checkout process.
Now, I have no problem with Mr Allen charging for content. However, I have a big problem with him lumping the free items in with the nonfree items. A process that should have taken me a few seconds and maybe three mouse clicks would instead take 2-3 minutes and a fair amount of typing. Mr Allen won’t benefit from me going through this process - I only wanted a free item, after all - and I would be put to an unreasonable inconvenience. This seems to go completely against the nature of Getting Things Done.
Shame on you, David Allen, for making things more difficult than they need to be.